• CA-26,  Julia Brownley,  Linda Parks

    CA-26 Linda Parks Moans About Democrat and Julia Brownley Attacks

    May 29, 2012 /

    This is almost laughable since Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks (of No Party Preference fame) would dish it out, if you she had the campaign cash to do so.

    But, she had only enough money to run those inane cable television ads, where she says she likes “rocky road” ice cream and talks with her mouth half open.

    Please…..

    The Democrats have done what they have had to do and expose Parks as the unprincipled POL that she is.

    But, will Parks edge out Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley in next Tuesday’s election?

    Hold on, it WILL be close.

  • CA-26,  Julia Brownley,  Linda Parks,  Tony Strickland

    CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks Independent Challenge

    May 23, 2012 /

    dcccattacks CA 26: Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Hits Linda Parks in Republican Framing Mailer

    Democratic Attack Mailer against No Party Preference candidate Linda Parks

    The chances of Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks winning a top two spot in the June 5th California Primary election is not looking so good. Timm Herdt over at the Ventura County Star has the analysis.

    First, lets look a the early balloting (California allows early by mail voting):

    Here’s what we know, based on information compiled by Political Data Inc. and Redistricting Partners: In the 26th Congressional District, 7 percent of the ballots sent to the district’s 151,515 permanent mail-in voters have already been returned. Of them, 40 percent have come from Democrats, 45 percent from Republicans and 11 percent from nonpartisans.

    Although CA-26 has a plurality of registered Democrats, the preponderance of early returned ballots, speaks to more enthusiastic voting by Republicans. And, these Republicans, are probably NOT voting for Linda Parks (who changed her registration from Republican to No Party Preference at the beginning of this campaign).

    Note, also the non-partisan or Declined to State returned mail ballots are ONLY at 11%.

    Herdt says that Linda Parks must capture 35 per cent of the Republican and non-partisan vote, plus 22 per cent of Democratic votes in order to beat Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley for second place. I don’t see how she gets there.

    With the blistering Democratic direct mail attacks on Parks and the preference for GOP primary voters to vote for one of their own, Parks will likely come in a close third to Brownley.

    Republican California State Senator Tony Strickland has run a very smart race. His low-key campaign, while raining tons of campaign cash for November has been the winning strategy.

    Watch your mailbox for more Democratic attacks on Parks as Brownley closes out the campaign.

  • CA-26,  Linda Parks

    CA-26: Is Linda Parks a Republican?

    May 18, 2012 /

    From LindaParksRepublican.com

    The new Linda Parks, Republican website certainly makes the case.

    Linda Parks is a Ventura County Supervisor running for Congress in in California’s 26th district as an “independent.” But Linda was a Republican for 16 years before switching to become an “independent” just in time to run for office. Sixteen years as a Republican. Really?

    Linda Parks claims to hate all things partisan. But that’s funny.

    You see, Linda became a Republican during Newt Gingrich’s hyperpartisan assault on democracy and good government.

    She stayed a Republican during the politically motivated partisan impeachment of Bill Clinton.

    She remained a Republican for the election of George W. Bush, an election decided by the nakedly partisan decision of the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc. She was still a Republican throughout the Bush Administration–arguably the most partisan Republican conservative administration in history.

    She remained a loyal partisan Republican during the invasion of Iraq.

    When Republicans swift-boated war hero John Kerry and wore purple-heart band-aids to mock Kerry’s military service during their convention, she still stayed a Republican. She didn’t change her registration when being a Republican meant endorsing Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.

    And when the Republican economics of reckless Wall Street deregulation crashed the economy even as the Republican Party threatened to put Sarah Palin, of all hyperpartisans, one heartbeat away from the Presidency, there was Linda Parks. An unwavering Republican.

    But now that she’s switched to “independent” in order to run for Congress, she claims to hate partisanship and declares independence from party loyalty. Not so fast.

    I have known Linda Parks for many years and watched her rise with the Thousand Oaks based “Slow Growth” movement. Her mentors were former Thousand Oaks City Council members Eloise Zeanah (a Republican) and Jaime Zukowski (a Democrat).

    Parks knew that if she was to have a political future in Thousand Oaks that she must be registered a Republican. Almost all of the POLS in this town since the 1980’s have been. The vast majority of voters and especially the ones that show up to vote are Republicans.

    Registering as a Republican was a no-brainer, if she wanted a political career.

    The better question is: will Linda Parks be a Republican partisan in the Congress?

    The answer to this question is NO and she won’t vote for the Democratic Party line either – especially since they are so desperate to defeat her with Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley.

    This attack website is nothing but HOT AIR and I suppose created by the very LEFT leaning Democrats in Ventura County who so want a Brownley vs. Republican Tony Strickland race in November.

  • CA-26,  Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,  Julia Brownley,  Linda Parks

    CA-26: Democrats Continue to Pound Linda Parks

    May 10, 2012 /

    Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Mailer

    The Democrats (Democratic Congressional Campaign Commitee)  are sliming Ventura County Supervisor  and NPP (No Party Preference) Linda Parks again.

    You remember the last time.

    Timm Herdt over at the Ventura County Star has the ridiculousness of the mailers.

    The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has flooded the mailboxes of Ventura County Democratic voters with another cartoonish mailer that seeks to portray independent congressional candidate Linda Parks as a tea party-style Republican extremist.

    The first showed Parks’ face on campaign buttons paired with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. The cover of this one shows an open closet with GOP paraphernalia, including a cardboard cutout of Palin and a Bush-Cheney placard, spilling out. The implication is that Parks has been trying to keep her true political leanings in the closet. The headline says, “Republican Linda Parks has a secret…”

    On the flip side it says that “Washington Republicans and Linda Parks would end Medicare as we know it” and that “a vote for Parks and the national Republicans is a vote for the Tea Pary.”

    Truthful?

    Not really. Linda Parks is NO conservative and is a RINO at best.

    But, the Democrats are desperate and will pound Parks, trying to drive up her negatives, so that their annointed Democratic candidate, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley can win second place against favorite, Republican Tony Strickland.

    I received a call from a political fact check organization the other day while I was traveling, inquiring about the first mail piece with Sarah Palin. This ad, like that one,  is blatantly false and misleading – so place it in the pile with the other one and ones to come from the DCCC.

    Doesn’t the DCCC remember that all of those negative mailers from Tony Strickland’s wife, Audra, backfired and made Linda Parks a sympathetic figure?

    I don’t think this appraach will curry favor with Ventura County Democrats for Brownley – but then again, maybe their polling already shows this.

  • CA-26,  David Cruz Thayne,  Julia Brownley

    CA-26: Julia Brownley Flip Flops on Support for Israel?

    May 9, 2012 /

    Screenshot from DavidCruzThayne2012

    According to the press release from fellow Democrat David Cruz Thayne:

    Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica), a candidate in the Congressional District 26 race, asserted at a Monday night candidates’ forum: “As I said once, I’ll say it twice, and I’ll say it again, I will defend Israel and oppose nuclear proliferation…and will work hard in Congress to protect [the relationship between the United States and Israel].”

    But in recorded remarks when speaking with Democratic Party activists just last month, Brownley repeatedly stated that she “would not support Israel” if it determined to use force in its attempts to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.

    “The duplicity and double-talk of career politicians like Julia Brownley on this issue should concern all voters in the district,” said Alex Thompson, campaign manager for Democratic candidate David Cruz Thayne. “She is playing the same old political games of telling different groups of voters what they want to hear instead of what she really believes. And since she has lived in Santa Monica the past 25 years, how are Ventura County voters supposed to know which is the real Julia Brownley? The voters of Ventura County deserve better.”

    Here is the video:

    Unless this video is widely disseminated, I see a very limited impact on this race.

    In the meantime, California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley has been racking up the endorsements of national and state Democrats.

    If there was ever much doubt that Assemblywoman Julia Brownley is the choice of national Democratic leaders for an open Ventura County congressional seat, recent campaign developments should have pretty much erased it.

    Late last week, the House Majority PAC, which is raising and spending money to elect Democrats to Congress, began running a cable television ad supporting Brownley, a Democrat who moved from Santa Monica to Oak Park for the race.  The group spent about $156,000 on the ads, which are scheduled to run for a week.

    On Tuesday, California’s two U.S. senators, both Democrats, announced they were endorsing Brownley.  Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Brownley “a champion for education in California.”  Sen. Barbara Boxer said Brownley  could be counted on “to protect California’s environment, women’s health and Medicare for our seniors, which have been under unprecedented attack by the extreme right.”

    There are three other Democrats in the race—Realtor/entrepreneur/CEO Albert Maxwell Goldberg, Oxnard Harbor Commissioner Jess Herrera and independent small businessman David Cruz Thayne.

    Now, all Brownley has to do is make sure that David Cruz Thayne does not siphon off enough votes from Democrats to enable NPP Linda Parks to sneak into second place.

  • CA-26,  Julia Brownley,  Linda Parks,  Tony Strickland

    CA-26: Linda Parks and Her Cable Television ONLY Campaign Strategy

    April 26, 2012 /

    Screenshot from Linda Park’s latest television ad

    Timm Herdt over at the Ventura County Star interviews Linda Park’s strategist George Gorton regarding her campaign media strategy.

    Political strategists have historically just about all come to the same conclusion about how to campaign in Ventura County: mail, mail and more mail. So it is intriguing to see the approach that Supervisor Linda Parks of Thousand Oaks is taking in running as an independent in the 26th Congressional District. She and her consultant, George Gorton, have decided to put nearly all their resources into cable TV.

    Public documents from Time Warner show that Gorton’s partner Garrett Biggs on April 5 signed a $202,200 contract to air Parks ads on Ventura County cable systems through Election Day. The current schedule shows spots slated to run nearly every day through May 13, presumably with more to be scheduled later. They are placed on a wide range of cable channels, including ESPN, the Food Network, Fox Sports, MSNBC, HGTV, the Discovery Channel and the History Network.

    “It’s a pretty significant buy,” Gorton told me yesterday.

    I know George Gorton from his days with Pete Wilson and his successful campaigns for U.S. Senate and California Governor. All of Gorton’s Wilson campaigns were very successful and almost all of the media was on television, broadcast and cable. So, a television only strategy is not unusual for Gorton.

    And, certainly this strategy is not unusual for Linda Parks who will be campaign cash challenged as compared to Republican California State Senator Tony Strickland and Democrat California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley. A direct mail campaign to all of Ventura County potential voters would be cost prohibitive for Parks – especially since she is a NPP (No Party Preference) and cannot mail to only Republican or Democratic households with the same message.

    Here is Park’s latest ad, embedded below and it features many of her supporters from City Council and Supervisor campaigns (very low production costs and value):

    What is surprising to me, is not the Park’s strategy. This is the same media campaign that her mentor and my former neighbor successful Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski used to beat an incumbent Thousand Oaks Mayor Robert Lewis over twenty years ago. What is surprising is that neither Strickland nor Brownley have responded with ANY cable television ads of their own.

    Parks has been on for over two weeks and nobody has gone “on air.”

    As far as internet ads are concerned, I have seen little activity thus far for Parks. She will likely do some and I will let you know when I see them appear.

    And, I bet when Brownley’s and Strickland’s consultants get around to reading Herdt’s and my pieces, they may actually produce some responding or even negative television ads. At least they should, especially Brownley, if she doesn’t want to finish third to Parks or Strickland in June.

  • CA-26,  Julia Brownley,  Nanny State,  Tony Strickland

    CA-26: Who Can Out Nanny State on Grocery Bags Tony Strickland or Julia Brownley?

    April 20, 2012 /

    A reusable grocery bag
    Photo Credit: LA Times

    Come on Tony, you don’t have to out Nanny State Julia Brownley.

    As a growing number of California cities and counties have adopted local ordinances banning the distribution of single-use plastic bags in the name of reducing litter and ocean pollution, Sen. Tony Strickland is concerned about a different threat at the grocery checkout line: reusable cloth bags.

    Strickland, R-Moorpark, believes those bags are a threat to public health because of the possibility of cross-contamination of bacteria from produce and that from meats and poultry. He wants to see a label printed on every reusable bag sold in California that reads, “WARNING: Reusable bags must be cleaned and disinfected between uses to prevent food cross contamination. Failure to do so can cause serious illness resulting from food-borne pathogens.”

    Strickland proposes that label in Senate Bill 1106, which would also require grocers to conspicuously display the same warning near where reusable bags are sold.

    “The goal here is public safety,” he said. “Consumers have a right to know that if they don’t wash them they put their health at risk.”

    Sorry Tony.

    But, your contention that there is a health hazard here is just plain stupid.

    I know you are doing this to punish those communities like Los Angeles who ban plastic bags. But, the rest of California doesn’t need MORE NANNY STATE to tell us when to clean out our reusable bags.

    Now, I have problems with banning plastic bags.

    However, more government regulation to cure government overreach is NOT a solution.

    You should know better.

    Drop the bill.

    Find another contrasting issue upon which to run for Congress and beat Julia Brownley.

  • CA-26,  Julia Brownley,  Linda Parks,  Tony Strickland

    CA-26: Fundraising Totals Show Republican Tony Strickland Far in the Lead

    April 16, 2012 /

    California State Senator Tony Strickland at January’s Congressional announcement

    Fundraising totals are now available for all of the candidates in CA-26 and Tony Strickland is the big winner.

    Tony Strickland: The Republican state senator from California raised a huge $781,000 in the first quarter for his run at a competitive open House seat in the 26th district, besting both Democratic state Assemblywoman Julia Brownley and independent Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks by half a million dollars. If the GOP can snatch this seat, it would go a long way toward stopping some of the bleeding after a tough redistricting draw.


    Here is more about Julia Brownley, and David Cruz Thayne.

    In CD26, Julia Brownley picks up $256k and has $254k on hand, Tony Strickland raised $782k with $732k on hand, and David Cruz Thayne collected $39k and has $62k on hand.

    And, Linda Parks:

    A clickable link for Linda Park’s fundraising totals is here.

    There is little doubt that Strickland is up and the Democrat Brownley is surprisingly down.

    But, Linda Parks is up first with cable television ads and undoubtedly some campaign cash will be raised and spent by Strickland and Brownley.

    First round of the fundraising wars goes to Tony Strickland tough.